Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

Proposal for Oasis Coral Canoa Reef Ball Coral Team Offers Volunteer Coral Team Activation [Note: Coral Team activations are by invitation only and require conditions conducive self supported volunteer ecotourisum. If your hotel is interested in a project please contact us to find out if this type of a project is possible for your resort] The Reef Ball Foundation has a Division called the ?Coral Team? which works to assist resorts in performing coral reproduction and planting projects on their Reef Balls using volunteers to minimize resort costs. Organized using paying volunteers, the Coral Teams can utilize non-occupied hotel room space to ?sell? to volunteers to support the coral transplant supplies and equipment required to undertake these projects. The volunteers also form the backbone of the labor to collect the corals, asexually reproduce them and then plant them on the hotel's Reef Balls but are supervised by experts to insure success. On average, a typical hotel would have to pay around $75,000 for the same service from commercial reef rehabilitation services. The benefits to the hotels are numerous from having better guest snorkeling opportunities, additional beach protection and promotional and press opportunties. In the special case of the Oasis Coral Canoa, there exists an opportunity to work with an endangered species of coral, that although it is very sensitive, can provide rapid growth and fast conversion from an artificial reef into a natural fringing coral reef. As this report has demonstrated, a test of this coral was successful from 2004-2007. The Reef Ball Coral Team would provide to the Oasis Coral Canoa two coral experts (John Walch, Coral Team Division President and Todd Barber, Reef Ball Foundation Chairman) to lead a team of 12 volunteers. Each volunteer would pay to the Reef Ball Foundation $1,000/double occupancy or $1500/single occupancy to participate and their payments are tax deductible in the US. These fund would be used to fund the airfare/fees of the experts, coral transplanting supplies, project t-shirts, etc. If participating, The Oasis Coral Canoa we would need to supply 8-12 all inclusive rooms (depending on volunteers signing up for single or double occupancy room), scuba tanks, weights and belts for the week, internet usage, boat support (likely needed for a couple of hours each day to aid in the collection of stock corals and movement of corals). Volunteer trips usually conclude in a wine & cheese party where we need some space in either a conference room, restaurant or outdoor area. Hotel management is invited to this party for awards and recognition and the event can also be appropriate for inviting the press if the hotel desires publicity for the event. Although the teams typically bring Thursday, July 05, 2007 enough wine and cheese for the team members, the hotel may need to supply additional refreshments if attendance is beyond the number of volunteers. Depending upon the supply of imperiled stock corals, a team will typically plant around 500 corals in a weeks time. Projects in the Caribbean are usually 7 days in duration. Project leaders usually arrive 1-2 days early to set up the coral propagation table so 2 extra rooms will be needed a day or two prior to the formal project. There is no guarantee about the number of corals that can be planted, but in our previous projects Coral Teams have always meet their leader's goals. From a Reef Ball Foundation perspective, our goal would be to have at least one Elkhorn coral planted on every Reef Ball at the Canola resort. In order to initiate a project, we need a formal commitment to the block of rooms and on site logistical support at least 2 months prior to the project commencing. Because corals should be planted in cooler waters due to heat stresses, September is the earliest possible date with October being a better choice. Project dates are typically selected by the host hotel to insure they are can use unoccupied rooms to minimize the project cost for the hotel. Therefore low tourist season is ideal. We encourage hotels sponsoring volunteer projects to provide any low cost extras they can to help us attract qualified and motivated volunteers. Examples include expedited check in, use of boat for extra pleasure dives, or discounted rooms in the case volunteers want to stay longer/or arrive early to relax outside the project work requirements. If the resort has outside activities such as sailing, golf or excursions we only encourage this if scheduling is possible outside of the volunteers normal work hours or in the event of bad weather days. Reef Ball Coral Teams come to work, the team meets for breakfast when the restaurants first open and will work typically until sundown, weather permitting. Hotel guests and staff are welcomed to join in the activities and therefore increasing the number of corals the teams can plant. Most hotel guests get very excited to see corals being asexually reproduced a the beach. Many hotels advertise or promote our visit beforehand to encourage higher occupancy rates. Some make our work part of the formal guest activities for that week and we are happy to accommodate. Thursday, July 05, 2007 Because our activities will be on the beach, we ask the hotel to provide an appropriate banner to be displayed above the coral propagation table as shown on the picture below. Our coral table will require that we borrow 2 umbrellas from the resort for the week also as shown. (Pictured, Todd Barber, left in sunglasses and John Walch, right with beard, lead a Reef Ball Coral Team Volunteer Project at the Cayman Island Beach Resort Marriott) For references, The Reef Ball Coral Team has performed volunteer projects at: The Four Seasons Resort, Maldive Islands Beach Resort Marrriot, Cayman Islands The Racha Resort (5 stars), Puckett Thailand Porto Mari Beach, Curocao Playa Duz Hal, Cozumel Mexico Maiden Island, Antigua Friends of the Environment, Abaco, Bahamas Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Coco Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas UAE President's Residence, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Reef Dive Resort, Mataking Island, Malaysia and many other governmental and private coral rehabilitation projects.

Biological Monitoring Report on Reef Balls Used as Submerged Breakwaters in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic For Reef Ball Foundation Records July 5, 2007 Submitted to (A Reef Beach Company Authorized Contractor) For Use By Iberostar, Gran Dominicus, Grand Canola & Cadques Caribe & Dominican Republic Regulatory & Environmental Authorities by the Reef Beach Company and Reef Ball Foundation